Posted on 12/07/2012 7:40:36 PM PST by Jyotishi
It's looking very likely that a bill in Congress that will make mandatory the use of "black boxes" more formally, Event Data Recorders (EDR) will become law soon. These are little computers clad in rugged casings that record data from your car's various sensors and computers to use for accident investigation and, very likely, other uses.
There's lots of privacy concerns around this new bill, and lots of questions as to exactly what that little boxy black snitch is snooping on. Plus, what about the voluntary black boxes some insurance carriers are offering? Let's see what we can clear up.
(Excerpt) Read more at jalopnik.com ...
You do understand that the primary purpose of these “black boxes” is to generate data for use by the government for the purpose of calculating “energy taxes” that will be coming down the pike sooner or later, right?
Merely more loss of freedom under the guise of everyone being safer...for the collective good.
And in other news, the price of older used vehicles unexpectedly rises!
It is on board but meant to protect the consumer and provide real time crash data to engineers. It is not supposed to be provided for criminal investigation, we all know where it is going.
What could possibly go wrong?
Thanks for this thread. I now know that my 11 year old truck has one but my 21 year old car does not.
Progressive Insurance offered discounts to their customers if they put their black box in. Trouble is Progressive owned the data. I don’t know if they still have that offer. They were doing it in 2004.
Build your own car.
Get a serviceable older vehicle, strip out the gratuitous electronics and isolate the modern ignition and fuel injection. Rewire the body electrics back to analog.
You don’t need a computer to make your brake-lights work.
You could take a modern pickup chassis and build almost anything up on it including an antique pickup or car.
I saw a nice 36 Ford truck cab and fenders begging to be transplanted on a modern F250 chassis. Somebody around here put a 39 Ford sedan delivery on an S10 frame...with a small block.
That way you can get the benefit of modern brakes, suspension and power train with the cool look of your favorite ride.
Then there’s kit cars.
Did some checking around. A bunch of insurance companies are now offering those boxes to the sheep. short video at link.
snip.. “Something that’s unique about Drivewise is that it’s a behavior device, it allows you to improve your behavior,” said Herndon.
Allstate gives you a Web Portal where it shows you a letter grade, our volunteer scored a C-. Along with individual scores on your mileage, the time of day you’re driving, your braking patters and speed.
So, according to the article, the car owner “owns” the data. If it’s my data to own, it’s also my data to destroy at my discretion, no?
they'll steal that little pleasure on me....
I remember hearing that your Social Security Number would never be used for identification. We all see where that went.
“Is a majority of the House really on board with this lunacy?”
Sorry...lights on but nobody’s home.
Don’t buy a new car. I have a 10 yo truck and I’m keeping it until our Republic returns.
Very good advice..folks wont be trapped if they don’t take the bait.
I think some nerd hero will quickly step forth to offer a solution to that problem with a hardware based “black box emulator.”
So in response they’ll make it a felony to tamper with your vehicle’s computer.
If you live in a state the imposes mandatory annual smog checks, you can plan on a test of the BB being part of the inspection. If the BB doesn't pass, you don't pass the test. No pass, no registration. You're grounded.
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